Mornings are glorious, oh yes: last year’s blue morning glories in their full blazing beauty (center, with the infamous garden chandelier needing better candle power to compete with the blue brightness) inspired the planting of not only the blue variety again this year but also these hot beauties flanking it . . .
My friends, Texas gardening is a ceaseless adventure. I sense that Round One of the growth season has already closed and Round Two is beginning. The first batches of blooming goodies have quickly baked to dainty crisps and their leafy greenness gotten rather scrawny and lean looking. Yes, my darlings, it’s gettin’ hot around here.
The pavement and patio concrete have a certain handily dense solar mass that lends itself to emitting mirage-like rays of shimmering hottitude that fry up whatever seems to have escaped the downward dash of the sunlight as it fell burning from the sky in the first place. Hand watering with a hose, even in the cooler parts of the day, is an exercise in futility to a certain extent–you can practically see the spray evaporating as it comes out of the nozzle, and anything with full sun exposure makes me wonder if the roots of the plant in question will in fact be boiled in the water I’m trying to give it. Gives me a different perspective on the old saying about ‘killing with kindness’, to be sure.
While the planters are already past their first peak (in the left-hand shot taken during the roses’ first heyday), more blossoms are coming in readily; the blue-black ornamental sage next to the bell in the center photo are already a big favorite with hummingbirds–you can just see the white blurred silhouette of one in the lower right quadrant of the picture–and the brilliant blue of borage is in full swing . . .
The first burst of the rose blooms has passed and the buds are in place for their second coming after a couple of weeks of being pruned back and nurtured through their little rest period. The boxed herbs and vegetables are very thirsty and rather root-bound, so I shall have to ease their pain by some gentle dividing and see if they can continue to show their heroism in beating the heat. Even in their potted distress, the borage plants are putting out large trusses of those glorious blue, refreshing-flavored starry flowers, so I will hope all the more that a little judicious division or removal to allow them a little loosening of their too-tight pants will make them happy rather than prove an additional challenge.
Zinnias make fun little hideaway homes for local bug-dom, but katydids seem to prefer something with more windows, and the dragonfly always goes straight for the penthouse so he can survey all of the lesser insects down below . . .
I know that the garden creatures are happy. Besides having me to chew on, the insects have all sorts of plants, not least of all those greens that are heat-stressed and have their defenses down. Some of the little bugs are still shy, like the one just barely peering out of the peachy zinnia above. Most of them are quite happy to be a bit more brazen, though. My little green friend came to the window and hung out with me the other night quite willingly–or was it just staring and spying on me? The prize for showiness this week goes, though, to the handsome Carmine Darter (correct me if I mis-identify) dragonfly that calmly came and posed on my little homemade tomato cage so long that I could come out of the house and get up close and macro-personal with him.
Whatever else happens in my little playground here, the main development will likely be somewhat delayed by the depredations of my intended full-yard rehab and my entirely predictably inevitable mistakes and faux pas. And, of course, getting overheated. For the time being, I am enjoying the begonias, the silverbeet, the sweet potato vine, and the cyclamen; the marigolds, the basil, and the blue sage.
For now, all is color and joy . . . and there is undoubtedly much more to come . . .
Art-Colored Glasses 
So full of wonderful colour Kathryn and such beautiful variety. How lucky for you to be going into the summer months – we are on the opposite end of the scale and I feel it is going to be an extra cold one (crossing fingers and toes) its a short one.
Have a super weekend.
🙂 Mandy
Yes, I hope your winter is mild, short and/or both! But there *are* some cozy pleasures specific to that season that I rather enjoy, too, and many of them are of course comfort-food related, so I know you’ll find ways to make the best of it! 🙂
xoxo
Kathryn
A beautiful and colourful creation Kathryn. Enjoy it to the fullest.
My mother was an avid gardener alas I failed to inherit her green thumb
I haven’t the skills or patience my mother had as a gardener, but I make up for it with lots of ignorant enthusiasm and undeserved good luck!!
🙂
Thanks for the trip to the garden! That dragonfly reminds me of pictures of dirigibles from the ’30’s. Should name him Hindenburg. 😀
I was thinking perhaps Zeppelini. 😀
Morning Glories! One of my favourites. 🙂 I feel like I’ve been inside your garden now!
I can so easily imagine you curled up asleep in the bell of a morning glory like a dainty little faerie. Perfect home for you! 🙂
xo
So colorful and joyful, Kathryn! One memory of my Mom is that her passion was gardening and she was great at it. Me? Well, I confess I have no green thumb, but my hubby does, so that helps. I love the color, though, it simply adds cheer to our yards…:)
Yes, color is of course a great addiction of mine, so I’m grateful that Mother Nature allows me plenty of leeway for my lack of skill when she hands over the goods. 🙂
xoxo
Gardening in India is a tough job with very strong sun we usually have. But also the pleasure is special when your garden looks pretty in spite of harsh sunlight and water shortage.
I can imagine that you have to really work at it to get anything to grow well. It’s interesting that, having lived for so many years in a temperate climate where it took virtually no effort or skill to the Texas climate, I am certainly much more mindful of what’s happening outside and what it will take to add to it than I ever was before. And a bit of increased mindfulness on any topic is admittedly not a bad thing, in my case! 🙂
Morning Glories, Marigolds & Basil, along with a Dragon Fly for a quadruple touch of beauty. There’s a bright red couple of Dragons that stop on a little statue on the patio but flit away in mortal fear of the camera. Guess they’ve had a bad experience with humans somewhere in the atmosphere…
Maybe my little Dragon will send along the message to yours that you mean them no harm, so they’ll relax around you. 🙂 I was surprised and delighted that this one was so fearless.
xo
Sometimes I miss N Texas/S Oklahoma…
Then you remind me about the heat!
Lovely shots – the green-and-growing is a respite when you live in Hell’s Waiting Room. Visually, anyway 😉
Hallelujah for AC, I tells ya! 😉 But yes, it’s been an incredible joy to have an unusually green NTX this year thus far. We’ll see how far I can stretch it out . . . 🙂
Lovely to know how your garden grows, Kathyn! Things are just getting going up here in the northeast…we had hot and dry…then cool and very wet…now just nice, mid-70’s…but I hear the heat is coming again.
Isn’t it weird that over the last generations, we’ve found so much new scientific knowledge and advancement but it didn’t, somehow, make us better able to figure out Weather. *That* just seems to get more and more surprising over time!